Kombdiche Lapchap (Chicken Curry Kohlapuri Style) and #52CookBookPact

A few weeks ago Rushina posted on twitter about the #52CookBookPact. The idea was simple to cook with one cookbook every week and post your experience from the same. One could cook one dish, many dishes. There are no rules apart from the fact that one must try 52 cook books. Now I am known to jump into various pacts (yes yes laugh some of you) and challenges and did the same for this one. Specially this one I should say since I rediscovered my love of cookbooks sometime last year and have been collecting them religiously and this seems like just the pact that will make me cook and use those books as well and more importantly write about them.

The pact ofcourse doesn't warrant a blog post but I have decided to chronicle all of my 52 books (or as many as I can manage in the year). I already have cooked from 3 though this is the first post.

So book 1/52 is "Rare Gems by Aditya Mehendale".

I had been looking at this book from a long time and then got it as a gift in one of the many secret santas that I was a part of. There are so few books available which explore the non vegetarian cooking of Maharashtra and Gujurat regions and this book is one of them. Besides it had rave reviews from all my Mumbai food friends.

The books is a delight to hold and look at, beautiful food pictures by Michael Swamy, every page you turn evokes your senses and makes you more hungry.

The book is divided into sections according to the sub-regions in the state, explaining the basics of that cuisine along with a base masala recipe and 5-6 main recipes in the region. It covers Kolhapur, Pathare Prabhu, Koli, Konkan, Malwan and Nagpur Saoji & Varhadi. For me it was a great introduction to these areas and the book has got me started on the deeper exploration of the cuisines from there, one region at a time.

The recipe I am sharing today from the book is from the Kolhapuri region and I almost followed the recipe as mentioned in the book apart from reducing the oil a bit. Funnily the recipe descriptions below the tittle Kombdiche Lapchap (Kombdiche means chicken but I couldn't find what lapchap means) in the book says "Chicken in a thick coconut gravy" whereas there wasn't any coconut in the ingredients. I don't know which is a error the title or the recipe, irrespective of that the chicken turned out delicious and I recommended the book if Marathi cooking interests you.

Kombdiche Lapchap (Chicken Curry Kohlapuri Style) and #52CookBookPactA few weeks ago Rushina posted on twitter about the #52CookBookPact. The idea was simple to cook with one cookbook every week and post your experience from the same. One could cook one dish, many dishes. There are no rules apart from the fact that one must try 52 cook books. Now I am known to jump i...sinamontales

For garnish

Fresh corainder leaves

Steps

Dry roast all the spice paste ingredients on a griddle till fragrant. Cool completely and grind using a little water if required to form a paste

Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan or kadhai, add the onions and sauté till golden brown. Add the chicken and sautee further for 2 minutes. Add the spice paste and cook till the oil separates. This will take around 7-8 minutes and I recommend you do this on low flame.

Add the youghurt, salt and 1 cup of water and cook till the chicken is cook and the gravy thickens.

An ex-IT person turned into a food blogger, consultant, home baker and a amatuer food photographer. From one role to many been an exciting journey. Sin-A-Mon Tales is a canvas for my food memories, this is where I shares reviews, recipes and food stories from my travels and my childhood.
Apart from rambling on here I also write for many online websites and publications, I am avid reader, an obsessive traveller and is always looking for food history and culture.